Rats, as big as Ally Cats, invade Florida County offices
Pastor Dale Morgan
Rats, as big as Ally Cats, invade Florida County offices*
Rodents 'big as cats' elude traps in a building in Fort Lauderdale.
April 03, 2007
FORT LAUDERDALE -- Kim Cardone won't wear open-toed shoes for fear of
feeling a nibble. Kelly Brown sits cross-legged with her feet off the
floor. No one leaves lunch on desks anymore.
Spooked by squeaks and skittering, the Broward County Property
Appraiser's staff is under siege from an invasion of mega rats.
"Healthy rats, big as cats," said Appraiser Lori Parrish, brandishing a
Louisville slugger.
Most Rattus rattus and Rattus norvegicus are nocturnal, but these
rodents haven't read the textbooks, Parrish says. "They walk out in
broad daylight and say hello."
Two stepped into a glue trap Thursday. One alerted the staff by
screeching, but the other blithely walked out, the goo barely slowing
his footsteps on the linoleum.
"He was a big rat. A New York rat. A rat that could do bench presses,"
said staffer Ken Collins.
The visitors arrived three weeks ago in the first-floor office in the
Government Center, 115 S. Andrews Ave. in Fort Lauderdale, and have
dodged rat catchers since. Employees theorize they are refugees from
nearby construction sites.
They are spotted in the artificial brush of potted plants, heard
rustling in piles of fax paper and even seen strolling across the open
area between rows of desks.
Assistant Appraiser Cardone was working alone Saturday when she heard a
noise in a cardboard carton of uniforms. She e-mailed Parrish: "They're
grossing me out!!!! I hear them under Pam's desk and rustling in the
shirt box. I'm so out of here!!!!"
Staffers brought traps from home, experimenting with the bait
One grabbed a treat off a sprung trap and nestled behind Parrish's
credenza to die. She can't find him. But she can smell him.
Eventually there were more rat sightings than traps. Tuesday,
Commissioner Suzanne Gunzburger said in a budget meeting: "[If] they
reach the fourth floor, I'm leaving."
Exterminators have set additional snares, but the resilient rats still
scurry across the floor , Parrish said.